Classic Poem

I

How thick the grass,
How green the shade--
All for love
And lovers made.

Wood-lilies white
As hidden lace--
Open your bodice,
That's their place.

See how the sun-god
Overpowers
The summer lying
Deep in flowers;

With burning kisses
Of bright gold
Fills her young womb
With joy untold;

And all the world
Is lad and lass,
A blue sky
And a couch of grass.

Summer is here--
let us drain
It all! it may
Not come again.


II

How the leaves thicken
On the boughs,
And the birds make
Their lyric vows.

O the beating, breaking
Heart of things,
The pulse and passion--
How it sings.

How it burns and flames
And showers,
Lusts and laughs, flowers
And deflowers.


III

Summer came,
Rose on rose;
Leaf on leaf,
Summer goes.

Summer came,
Song on song;
O summer had
A golden tongue.

Summer goes,
Sigh on sigh;
Not a rose
Sees him die.